The instructions on Tuesday night - which will see result in around 50,000 operations being axed - followed claims by senior doctors that patients were being treated in “third world” conditions, as hospital chief executives warned of the worst winter crisis for three decades.

Hospitals are reporting growing chaos, with a spike in winter flu leaving frail patients facing 12-hour waits, and some units running out of corridor space.

There was an article on reddit this morning about a woman who was given an OB/GYN exam in a hallway full of other people also waiting for medical care. Some of those other waiting folks are dying in those hallways apparently. They also mentioned using ambulances as treatment rooms.

Don't laugh, that might be us real soon. Saw a story on the fox site this week about how the 3 places that make most of our saline solution IV bags are all in Puerto Rico. And now we're having a lot of shortages for people who have lost a lot of blood, chemo patients, etc. The story didn't say the places were back up and running, just said they were working on it.